
I LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DDD13SD7mH 



E 612 
.L6 R7 
Copy 1 



.y 



9,-( 



COL. ROSE'S STORY 



OF 



The Famous Tunnel Escape 



FROM 



LIBBY PRISON. 




"FROM RATHELLTO LIBERTY " 



A THRILLING ACCOUNT OF THE DARING ESCAPE 

OF 109 UNION OFFICERS FROM LIBBY 

PRISON THROUGH THE FAMOUS 

YANKEE TUNNEL 



i^ 




MONOMANIACS are so frequently found amid ordinary sur- 
roundings of life as developed from sane people by dint of con- 
tinuous brooding upon single subjects that it is not surprising 
to find that amongst pnsoners-of-war that special form of 
mental aberration is more frequently developed than any 
other. Popular phraseology tersely classifies them as "cranks.'* 
Their philosophical , mora 1 or spiritual speculations are believed 
in but by themselves. Who believed that the scratch of a pin 
on tinfoil would make it talk till Edison produced the phono- 
graph? or that cotton down might be transformed into a deadly explosive till 
Abell arose? or that Perkins held the secret of restoring from the depths of earth 
the colors bestowed by the benignant sun upon primeval forests, aeons since trans- 
muted into coal? or that light, heat and power could be generated from the union 
of substances in which neither was inherent; diluted or intensified, expanded or 
compressed, and stored or sent in boxes all over the world? None but cranks. 
The wisdom of the past is the folly of the present. Whether the science of the 
present has not erred by non-conservation of the experience of the past is another 
question not now under discussion. 

Hope springs eternalin the human breast, 
thanks to Pandora. A pale, sallow, resurrected-looking youth, wandering from 
room to room like an illfed spectre, reduced to the narrowest possible limits oi 
anatomical contraction, mused incessantly upon his hobby, dreamed of impractic- 
able ladders to be surreptitiously manufactured out of nothingand ingeniously con- 
cealed from visiting inspectors. Eating, waking and sleeping the idea obsessed 
his brain, just as a casually heard tune willh aunt one till at inopportune moments 
he "can't get it out of his head." At length, after gazing at the fields and forests 
beyond the James, he resolved to make tne attempt to escape. A stormy night 
favored his determination. He clutched the bars and was actually all but pro- 
jected beyond the sill when he discovered that to spring off and slide to the length 
of his tether and let go would cause him to alight upon a Confederate hat cover- 
ing an indispensable portion of the anatomy of a sentinel. Hence a sullen re- 
liiquishment of his purpose, and the origin of a belief that the evasion of Saul, 
Ic^wered from the walls of Damascus in a basket, could not be successfully paral- 
leled at Libby. 

But there are more ways than one of effecting a purpose, especially when it is 



the attainment of liberty. From the Fall of 1863, when the escapes noticed in 
previous chapters occurred, additional hardships afflicted the prisoners, until a 
number of the officers determined, under the directorship of Col. Thos. E. Rose, 
77th Pa. , to endeavor to excavate a passage through which to escape. Earnest or 
purpose, unwearied in persevering, and of considerable engineering abilities, he 
organized working parties of ten and fifteen officers, whom he led every night to 
the cellars of the prison. These were dark, entirely unguarded and seldom vi-- 1 
even in the daytime. The doors were locked and bolted, the lights grated, . i 
appeared safe to the commandant and his patrols. They little dreamed that, a.«= 
the cry went round the sentries, "Twelve o'clock" — "Post No. 10, all's well! ' 
there were burrowing below men as resolute as pursuit of liberty as the Scotch 
wooer, who gallops over the downs to win a blooming bride. 

Her mother she has locked the door. 

Her father taken the key; 
But ere the dawn o' niornin' light, [ 

I'll set my true love free. 

Maj. A. J. Hamilton was Col. Rose's first assistant, and to him is due th< 
credit of having in\'ented and constructed the few poor tools with which the tiin 

nel was dug. With undaunted courag' 
he assisted Col. Rose in keeping up tf/< 
flagging interest, mental spirits, an< 
physical condition of the men. It was 
tremendous attempt for liberty and requi r 
ed almost superhuman powers of energj' 
and resistance of fatigue. 

In the room used as a kitchen, ii; 
opening was made in the flooring by th 
prisoners, which, except when used fo 
actual ingress or egress, was concealed 1 J 
a well-fitting board. The cellar belo^.' 
was sometimes used as a work-shop an • 
carpenter's bench stood directly und ^ \ ■ 
aperture, through which the div' 
dropped nightly from the kitchen al»u\ j 
being raised again by a rope cr a 
blanket. One night the rope broke under 
the weight of one of the officers, juid 
he fell from several feet on the table with 
a terrible racket, which was heard by 
the sentry on the beat outside, who call- 
coiv. THOs. n. ROSE. cd for the corporal of the guard. The 

two discussed the cause of the noise, but eventually attributed it to some other 
than the real cause. 

It was hard work thus tunneling, and disappointed hopes almost led the 
t)urrowers to give up faith in the proverb, persevcrajido vmces. The first excava- 
tion led directly into a stratum of rock and had to be abandoned as impracticable. 
Then it was suggested that the main sewer ran between the prison and the canal. 
By digging from the cellar into the sewer, it could be easy to creep along it to a 
safe distance and emerge from the street inlets. After many nights of labor, per- 
formed under the most trying circumstances, water began to percolate into the ex- 
cavation and at last poured in so rapidly that it was impossible to continue it and 
the hole had to be dammed up again. 

This Rat Hell tunnel was admirably planned and had it proved successful 
there is no doubt that except, perhaps, the hospital ward, the rooms of Li bby 
Prison would have been vacant within a few hours. 

A number of interesting anecdotes are told in connection with this tunnel. On* 




night Col Rose was digging beneath the beat ot a sentinel when a small portion 
of the earth and pavement caved in. The sentry's attention was attracted and 
^e ran to the spot. "What is it?" asked the soldier at the next post. ''A 
■' Linderino- big rat'" cried the first one, as he ran his bayonet into the hole. Lol. 
Rose rniialned motionless and breathless, though the point of the bayonet grazed 
his cheek, until the reassured sentinel resumed his beat, little suspecting the real 
proportions of the Federal rat he had missed killing. 

This was not the only attempt made to penetrate into the sewers. Ther j 
wereseveral-allfruitless, and it was then resolved to tunnel under thestieet 
east of the prison and to reach the yard of the warehouse opposite, shown ixi cut 
on another page. The street itself was paced day and nightbysentinels. ^^o hope 
deferred made hearts sick from the autumn of 1863 till the New Year's festivities 
of 1864 had passed and gone. ■ u *-u 

Chicao-o encrineers have been priding themselves on the tarlr that with the 
assistance Sf city plans to scale,special surveys and the latest s-rveyor's appliances 
^hey commenced at either end of the new water supply tur-:a for the South side 
md succeeded in so accurately guiding the working parr>.s that at the middle 
he ends were only four inches out of truth. Col. Ros" had none of these things 
-not even a compass. Instinct and memory were l,is only guides in bringing to 
! successful issue his notable adventure, and with a minimum of error. 

Early in January, Col. Rose organized a party of fourteen officers, who were 
10 relieve each otherVegularly in working -quads, one always remaining on guard 
of the scene of operations to prevent a trip being set for the capture ot the escap- 
ing prisoners, should the scheme be discovered by the prison officials. The wcr'hi 
was set about in this way:* Having succeeded in lifting out the bottom of th^ irue- 
place in the cook-room, they removed the bricks from the flue and pe-Cv.ated 
between the floor joists into the cellar under the end room used as a I )spitaL 
Through this aperture they could with ease lower each other down. i hen an 
opening was begun in the wall near the northeast corner of the cellai, about 2 ft. 
K 18 in. It was found necessary to cut through the piles on which the building 
was supported, and this tedious task was successfully accomplished by _ working 
, deaver-fashion with pocket knives. As the tunnel progressed the air in it be- 
came fetid and oppressive, and the candles u,sed refused to burn in the exhala- 
tion from the earth, so that one of the party was compelled to stand constantly at 

the mouth of the opening, 

and fan fresh air — such as it 

was in that close cellar — into 

the tunnel with his hat. For 

three weeks this severe labor 

^ ^ was carried on unceasingly. 

The only tools used were those now preserved 
in this Museum — a large chisel furnished with 




rUNNEL ENTRANCE 




WEAPONS OF WAR. 

... .^... .,^^^^^.^ IN prisoners' hands. 

a long handle and a wooden spit box brought down from one of the rooms above. 
To each end of this a cord was attached by which it could be drawn into the tun- 
nel, filled with the earth scooped out by the diggers, and hauled out by his 
assistant. The earth and gravel thus taken out was carefully concealed under 
some straw and rubbish in the cellar. 

The tunnel fell with a marked depression for a distance of about twelve feet, 
then slightly ascended, and for the remainder of its length to the outlet was 
nearly level. The depression was necessary to allow for the fall of the ground 
towards the warehouse. In all its length was about fifty two feet. Where it began 
it was about two feet by eighteen inches. For about six feet of its length it ran 
straight from the entrance and about eighteen feet from the entrance diminished 
in its dimensions to a diameter of 07i/y sixteen inches, then after a while slightly- 
increased and gradually enlarged to two feet in diameter at the exit. 

Peril became more imminent as they neared the end of the work. An error 



in the computation of the distance of the shed nearly proved fatal to the under- 
taking. The diggers rejoiced at the prospect of the speedy completion of their 
work, which had to be done lying prone upon the face, access to it being gained 
by propelling oneself along the tunnel with hands and feet and egress effected by 
being dragged out stern first by a rope tied to the feet. i6 in.x i6 in. will not 
allow of creeping on one's hands and knees. The hole was like that cell in the 
Tower of lyondon, called "Little Ease," prepared by a cardinal for the express 
discomfort of a kinsman who had proved very dear to him. Its occupant could 
neither sit, nor kneel, nor stand erect, nor lie at length, yet lived for years till 
habit had produced deformity. However, he had good air to breathe. The cap- 
tives scooping out in darkness, mole-like, handful by handful of Richmond soil,' 
had not, and, unlike the mol^, they could not cast up in.mounds the soil removed. 
To the dangers of their task was added the terror of possible asphyxiation — either 
from bad air or by a cave- in of earth above them. When they had reached the 
point marked H in the section, jubilant in the belief that they had cleared the 
confines of the shed. Rose set to work to scoop upwards. Presently air stole in re- 
freshingly to the hands and face of the worker, contrived to turn his head and 
looking up saw the pale gleam of a star. Never was light less lovely or less 
longed for. INIalediction! The surface had been pierced in the street, outside the 
shed and within a few yards of the sentinels. The labor in scooping the perpen- 
dicular hole had been wasted and it was necessary to replace some of the earth at 
the surface and bolster it up from below with a pair of pants stuffed with straw. 

Then operations were resumed for a few feet further, and at last a second 
opening was ventured and, proving to be at the desirea point, was enlarged till 
the point O. After a few draughts of air and an interval of rest till dawn. Colonel 
Rose took a survey of the surroundings and made a tour of inspection in order 
to determine upon the best plan for flight. Upon investigation he found that the 
only way of escape lay in sight of the sentinel on the south side. He also noted 
that the end of the beat was fifty or sixty feet from the mouth of the tunnel, and 
he decided that by-^^alking eastward as the sentry began his westward course one 
could be so far wiu j the shadow of the adjoining house as to make the color of 
his uniform indiscernible to the guard. He reversed an empty hogshead in such 
wise that when he had partly lowered himself into the tunnel he could draw it 
over the opening to conceal it during the coming day, then backed his way for 
the last time to the wretched prison walls. 

Who can account for the fact that in a prison where privacy was impossible 
the secret of the whole of this work was known to but about twenty-five prisoners? 
Who shall describe the feeling of these twenty-five as they went to rest that night, 
their reflections on risks yet to be run, their hope that St. Valentine's Day would 
see them restored to their loved ones? How depict the concealed triumph they 
felt that day — their anxiety for the outcome — their thought for those who had 
aided naught to accomplish the work, but who nevertheless were fellow prisoners, 
therefore to be pitied, and to be compassionately admitted to reap advantages 
where they had not sown. It was agreed that the twenty-five workers were to 
make their escape early in the evening and to have two hours start; after that, 
the rest of the prisoners were to be informed and all who were strong enough to 
make the attempt allowed to take their chances. So passed February 8th, 1864. 

Col. Streight and his party were the first to leave. On reaching the shelter 
of the warehouse shed, they had but to walk boldly out of the gate into the 
street between two lines of guards and away along the lines of the canal. 



The lollowing is the only complete compilation ever made of the names and 
regiments of those that escaped: 

Capt. R. R. Adams, 89th Ohio ; Capt. S. C. Bose, 4th Wisconsin Cavalry ; Lieut.-Col. J. F. Boyd, Quartermaster o{ 
Volunteers 20th Army Corps ; Capt. Matthew Boyd, 73d Indiana ; Lieut. R. V. Bradford. 2d Tennessee Cavalry ; Capt D. S. 
Caldwell, 123d Ohio; Capt. H. P. (or H.) Chamberlain, 97th New York; Capt. T. Clark, 78th (or 79th) Illinois Infantry; 
Major J. P. Collins, 20th (or 29th) Indiana Infantry; Lieut-Col. George G Davis. 4th Maine Infantry ; W. G. Ely, i8th Con- 
necticut ; Capt. Fisher, 3d Pennsylvania ; Capt. B. F. Fisher, Chief of Signal Corps Army of Potomac ; ist Lieut. John C. 
Fis!ar, 7th Indiana Battery ; Major G. R. (or W.) Fitzsimmons, 3Cth (or 13th) Indiana Volunteers; Lieut. Eli Foster, 30th 
Indiana Infantry; Capt. J. F. Gallagher, Company B, 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry; Capt. Michael Gallagher, 3d New Jer- 
sey Cavalry, or 2d New York Cavalry; Capt. A. G. Hamilton, Company A, 12th Kentucky Cavalry; Lieut. Harris, 9th 
Ohio; Lieut. J. D. Hatfield, 53d Illinois: Major John Henry. 5th Ohio; Lieut. E. J. Higley, 23d Ohio; Lieut— Col. Harrison 
C. Hobart. 21st Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry ; Capt. I. N. Johnston, Company H, 6th Kentucky Volunteer Infantry ; Major 

J. H. Hooper, 15th (or i6th) Massachuseits. (dead); Capt. T.J. (or D. J.) ■ ist Kentucky Infantry; Col. W. P. Ken- 

dr'xk, 3rd West Tennessee Cavalry ; Col. Wm. B. McCreery, 21st Michigan Infantry ; Major B. B. McDonald, looth (or 
loist) Ohio; Lieut. N.J. (or S.) McKeen, Company H. 21st Illinois ; Col. D. Mills, 79th Pennsylvania; Capt. John F. Porter, 
Jr., escaped two weeks earlier, 14th N. Y. Cavalry ; Lieut. Randolph, 5th U. S. Artillery ; Capt. W. S. B. Randall (or Run- 
dell.) Company C. 2d Ohio Volunteer Infantry ; ist Lieut Wm. Reynolds, 73d Indiana Volunteers; Col. Rodgers, Colonel 
Mell; Col. Thomas E. Rose, 77th Pennsylvania ; Capt W. W. Scearce, 51st Indiana Volunteers; Lieut E. S. Scott, 89th 
Ohio; ist Lieut. Scudamore ; ist Lieut. John Sterling, 30th (or 29th) Indiana Volunteers; Col. A. D. Streight, sist Indiana 
Volunteers; Col. Chas. W. Tilden, i6th Maine; I. W. Thomas, (Lieut, and Adjt.) 2d Ohio Infantry; Capt. Morton Tower, 
13th Massachusetts Volunteers; Major J. N. (or I.) Walker, 73d Indiana; Lieut. Wallace, 5th U. S. Cavalry; Capt. Wallack, 
51st Indiana; ist Lieut. Albert Walber, 26th Wisconsin; Lieut James M. Wells, Company F, 8th Michigan Volunteer Cav- 
alry; Lieut.-Con. T. S. West, 24th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry; Lieut. L. P. (or T. P.) Williams, 72d Indiana Volunteers; 
Lieut W. A. Williams, 123d Ohio ; Lieut-Col. Alexander Theobald von Wizel, 74th Pennsylvania Infantry. 

Re-captured Prisoners. — H. M. Bassett, 53a Illinois; M. Bedell, 123d New York; 2d Lieut. S. P. Brown, 15th U. S. 
Cavalry ; Lieut. H. S. Chivester, 32d Illinois ; H. P. Crawford, 2d Illinois Cavalry ; Lieut. W. N. Daily, 8th Pennsylvania 
Cavalry; Lieut. P. S. Edmonds, 67th Pennsylvania; Lieut-Col. Eli, 18th Connecticut; Daniel Fransberry, ist Michigan 
Cavalry; 2d Lieut. S. P. Gamble. 63d Pennsylvania ; J. H. Godsby, igth U. S. Infantry; 2d Lieut. G. S. Gord, 84th Penn- 
sylvania ; Lieut Greble. 8th Michigan ; J. C. Hall, 112th Illinois; Thomas Hardy, 79th Illinois; Lieut. Adam Hauf, 46th 
New York ; Lieut. H. Hinks, 57th Pennsylvania; Capt. F. Irsch, 45th New York; Isaac Johnson, Engineer Steamer Satel- 
lite ; Col D. Miles, 79th Pennsylvania ; Lieut A. Moore, 4th Kentucky ; Capt. M. Moore, 29th Indiana ; Lieut. F. Moran, 
73d New York ; Lieut. C. H. Morgan, 21st Wisconson Volunteers; Capt. Phelps, 73d Indiana; Lieut. W. B. Pierce, nth 
Kentucky Cavalry; T.J. Ray, 49th Ohio; Col. T. G. Rose, 77th Pennsylvania: Capt. Roseman, 3d Ohio; Lieut. S. Schroe- 
der, 74th Pennsylvania ; Lieut Simpson, loth Indiana ; M. R. Small, Adjutant 6th Maryland ; Capt. E. S. Smith, 19th U. S. 
Cavalry; S. D. Southerland, 125th Ohio; Col. J. P. Spoflford, 97th New York; Capt. G. Stair, 104th New York; 2d Lieut. 
J. H. Wasson, 40th Ohio; Lieut W. L. Watson, 21st Wisconsin; Lieut A. B. White, .«'' '^-nnsylvania Cavalry; 2d Lieut. 
P. H. White, 83d Pennsylvania ; Lieut Wilcox, loth New York Cavalry ; Capt Wilkins, 11 ..linois ; Capt J. Yates, 3d Ohio. 

Mentioned in Capt. I. N. Johnston's List, Birr not reported elsewhere. — Capt Lucas, 5th Kentucky Volunteer 
Infantry ; Lieut. Mitchell, 79th Infantry ; Capt. David S. Flamsburg, 4th Indiana Battery, (died in Columbia Prison, S. C); 
David Corbit, 77th Pennsylvania. 

About midnight crowds thronged the cook-room, each endeavoring to be the 
first to drop through the cellar. Their exodus was only stopped by a sudden panic 
which seized them. The alarm was given that the guard was coming and a stam- 
pede set in up the stairs to the floors above, with tramping, clattering and overset- 
ting of boxes and barrels termed "furniture," that created a din audible for blocks. 
But after dark noises from "raiding" were so frequent that the sentries took no heed 
of it. Indeed, one was heard to call jocosely to his comrade on the next beat, 
"Halloa, Bill, there's somebody's coffee-poi upset this time surel" The daytime 
amenities of the kitchen had steeled his nerves to anything. 

Of the 109 who thus escaped only 48 succeeded in reaching the Federal lines. 
The rest were recaptured and consigned to bread and water in the dungeons. 
One party seized a boat and were upset in the Appomattox River in the dark- 
ness and had to take to the shore where they nearly froze to death before they 
were discovered. And others concealed themselves in the Chickahominy swamps 
where they were hunted out with the aid of dogs and finally secured. Col. Rose, 
to whose zeal and labors the partial success of the escapade v/as due, was in haid 
luck. After a series of narrow escapes he found himself near Williamsburg, and 
believed himself safe from pursuit and sat down to rest. Two soldiers came up 
in Federal uniforms to whom he told his story. They took him on the "double" 
a mile from the place where they met him and then told him they were not 
Union soldiers, but Confederate scouts. Col. Rose, though nearly overcome with 



hungef and exnaustion, made a hard and desperate effort for his liberty at a mo- 
ment when one of them had left and attempted to disarm the other. In this 
scruggle his gun was discharged and brought back the second scout, so that 
the unequal conflict was soon terminated. 

Col. A. D. Streight, one of the number, revisited Richmond in 1883 and 
told an entertaining story of the trials and hardships of the iourney to the union 
camp. While confined in L,ibby Col. Streight had been instructed, in case he 
ever got out, to go to the house of a certain negro woman and she would guide 
him to friends. On the night of his escape, accompanied by some comrades, he 
immediately repaired to the dwelling of the negress, who conducted him to a 
vacant house, a place of safety provided by Miss Van Lew, mentioned in the 
chapter on "lyibby and its environs. " They went into retirement for seven days 
and then left Richmond late one night, supplied with food, arms, and full direc- 
tions as to routes. They purposed to reach the Potomac, get a boat, and cross to 
their own limits; and they accomplished this after thirteen days of danger, thickly 
mixed with misery. 

Col. Streight relates an amusing episode which oocurred en route to the 
home of the friendly negress. Keeping close within the shadow of the houses 
along the street he passed near the door of a bar-room in which were several con- 
federates, drinking and carousing. Stepping into the radius of the light from 
within he was perceived by one of the soldiers, who made a rush for him. In the 
twinkling of an eye all his sense of freedom vanished, and a sickening horror of 
future captivity crept upon him. In that moment he lived a life-time of disap- 
pointment. In panoramic view there passed before him the long, dreary nights 
of labor, the suffocating journey up the tunnel, the dodging of sentrys and — scarce- 
ly outside the limits of the dungeon— again a captive! Summoning all his forti- 
tude he braced hims elf to face the inevitable as a heavy hand was laid upon him, 

and in a drunken, maudlin voice his 
expected captor implored him to 
"make that fellow give back my 
hat." Perceiving that the man was 
too intoxicated to observe the color 
of his apparel, and feeling a sense of 
intensest relief, he politelj^ excused 
himself and again slunk into the 
darkness. Imagine the transition of 
a man's feelings under such circum- 
stances! It must have been a decid- 
edly tragic scene, though now itpar- 
,. takes largely of the ludicrous. 

'^^^■•■- '^^•'^^ ^^^ thesignal for vigorous 

vigilance to make up for past laxity 
of discipline. The iron bars were 
strengthened to impregnability. Ma- 
jor Turner, the commandant, was 
apparently determined no more 
should escape his clutches. A cor- 
poral's guard patrolled the building 
every two hours, examining every 
Major A. G. Hamilton. fireplace, window, nook and corner 

of every room. Rollcalls were without number: Once in the middle of the night 
all were summoned to be counted, because a sentry mistook his shadow for a 
Yankee crawling out of a sewer inlet. Being late at roll-call was punished by 
being kept standing in the kitchen under guard for four hours. On one occasion 
all prisoners were ordered down into the kitchen, over one thousand being 
crowded into that filthy apartment 100 tt. x 45 ft. The smoke was so thick they 




1 



could breathe with difficulty. Meantime search was made in every room for 
miner's tools and firearms. When allowed to return to their quarters the prisoners 
found all their little files and tools used for cutting ration bones into unwearable 
finger rnigs and sacrilegious-looking crosses — gone! All pocket knives — gone! 
Whatsoever possessed point or tooth or edge, or looked as though it might come 
in handy to lift out the bottom of a fireplace or scoop away a spoonful of earth 
—gone! The stairs irom the first to the second floor were taken down by means 
of rope and pulleys every evening, and a sentry, musket in hand, placed below to 
shoot at faces peering from above. An order was read from Major Turner stating 
that sentries had orders to shoot any face which touched the window bars. The 
rumor ran amongst the prisoners that this was because certain of them had writ- 
ten anonymously to Major Turner that unless they were treated more leniently 
they would cut his throat and that these precautions were t;iken to prevent that 
unpleasant possibility. 

Boxes from home were no longer delivered, but opened in the warehouse 
across the street and their contents pillaged at night,or doled out in curious fashion. 
One officer received as his share of a box trom home, two Northern newspapers 
and a Bologna sausage; another was made happy and comfortable for the winter 
by receiving as the entire contents of a barrel shipped him, a drum of salt and 
three tin candlesticks! This was in retaliation for the alleged stoppage of boxes 
sent to Confederate prisoners in Northern prisons. On one occasion, money was 
paid the Warden to purchase some underclothes. On receiving them they were 
found to be stamped in blue "Sanitar}' Commission, Phila." When reproached 
for extorting money for articles intended to be distributed gratuitously, Mr. Dick 
Turner replied suavely : "Why, gentlemen, they are a d — d sight better goods 
than you could buy anywhere in Richmond for the money!" From October, boats 
laden with clothing and stores for the prisoners in lyibby and Belle Isle had been 
lying in the canal, fronting the prison. Government, Sanitary Commission, 
individuals and families had all helped to fill them, and there the bales boxes and 
ry or were toted into the warehouse. 

At that time it was alleged that the prisoners had plotted to break out by 
force, overpower the sentries, seize the arms at the guard head-quarters across 
the street, liberate the prisoners on Belle Isle and hold the city. The guards 
were doubled and cannons were planted so as to sweep the street contiguous to 
the prison. Now on March 3rd, fresh fear seized the authorities. Kilpatrick's 
raiders were at the gates of Richmond, and the cannonading on the Chickahom- 
ing,and it leaked out that rather than liberate the prisoners that the cellars of the 
prison had been mined and a soldier sent with a lighted candle every half-hour 
to see that the fuse was all right to where the kegs of powder were buried. There 
appeared a prospect of leaving I^ibby through the roof for the remaining occu- 
pants who had not squirmed through the underground road to IvIBERTy. 

Amongst the officers who escaped by the underground route was Dr. Chas. 
Warrington Earle, M. D., of Warren Avenue, Chicago, who has frequently given 
his narrative for the benefit of the G. A. R. posts, and as it is now partly in type 
it would be unfair to anticpate its publication. In the Cenhcry, Vol. XXXV, No. 
5, however, will be found an excellent account of it by Frank D. Moran. 

The first floor on the west of the building was used by the Confederates as 
an office and for sleeping-quarters for the prison officials, and a stair- way guarded 
by sentinels led from this to Milroy's room just above it. As before explained, 
Note — A Richmond correspondent writes on May 9th, 1889: 

"Maj. Thomas Turner, once commandant of Ivibby, and, although an old man, still bears 
upon his wrists the scars of the wounds inflicted by the irons with which he was bound for 
more than fifty days, subsisting upon bread and water. This was done after the war, when he 
was arrested by the union ofiBcers for the alleged.cruelty to the prisoners iinder his care. Al- 
though quite reticent upon the subject, the major can relate many incidents of prison life. 
Some of these are of an amusing and entertaining nature, while others are disagreeable and 
revolting." 



the middle room was shut off from the office by a heavy blank wall. This room, 
known as the "Kitchen," had two stoves in it, one of which stood about ten feet 
from the heavy door that opened on Carey street sidewalk, and behind the stove 
was a fireplace. The room contained also several long pine tables with perman- 
ent seats attached, such as may be commonly seen at picnic grounds. The floor 
was constantly inundated here by several defective and overworked water-faucets 
and a leaky trough. 

A stair-way without banisters led up on the south-east end of the floor, above 
which was a room known as the "Chickamauga room," and chiefly occuiDied by 
Chickamauga prisoners. The sentinel who had formerly been placed at this 
stair- way at night, to prevent the prisoners from entering the kitchen, had been 
withdrawn when, in the fall of 1863, the horrible condition of the floor made it 
untenable for sleeping purposes. 

The uses to which the large ground-floor-room east of the kitchen was put 
varied during the first two years of the war, but early in October of 1863, and 
thereafter, it was permanently used and known as the hospital, and it contained 
a large number of cots, which were never unoccupied. An apartment had been 
made at the north or front of the room, which served as a doctor's office and 
laboratory. Like those adjoining it on the west, this room had a large door 
opening on Carey street which was heavily bolted and guarded on the outside. 

The arrival of the Chickamauga prisoners greatly crowded the upper floors, 
and compelled the Confederates to board up a .small portion of the east cellar at 
its south-east corner as an additional cook-room, several large caldrons having 
been set in a rudely built furnace; so, for a short period, the prisoners were al- 
lowed down there in the day-time to cook. A stair-way led from this cellar to 
the room above, which subsequently became the hospital. 

The north portion of this cellar contained a large quantity of loose packing 
straw, covering the floor to an average depth of two feet; and this straw afforded 
shelter, especially at night, for a large colony of rats, which gave the place the 
name of "Rat Hell." 

Col. Rose and Major A. G. Hamilton, (12th Ky.) discussed plans of gaining 
their liberty. They agreed that the most feasible scheme was a tunnel, to begin 
in the rear of the little kitchen apartment at the south-east corner of Rat Hell. 
Without more ado they secured a broken shovel and two case-knives and began 
■operations. 

Within a few days the Confederates decided upon certain changes in the 
prison for the greater security of their captives. A week afterward the cook-room 
was abandoned, the stair-way nailed up, the prisoners sent to the upper floors, 
and all communication with the east cellar cut off. This was a sore misfortune, 
tor this apartment was the only possible base of successful tunnel operations. 

To get to this, Rose pried up a floor board in the kitchen over the middle 
cellar, on the south side of which he believed a door existed, by which workmen 
had entered and departed. 

He wrenched off one of the long boards that formed a table-seat in the 
kitchen, and founa that it was long enough to touch the cellar ba.se and protrude 
a foot or so above the kitchen floor. A storm raged fiercely , and by the faint beams of 
a street lamp he crept softly along the cellar wall, and found what he supposed 
was a door was simply a naked opening to the street; also that there was but one 
sentinel on the south side of the prison. Groping about, he found various appur- 
tenances indicating that the south end of this cellar was used for a carpenter's 
shop, and that the north end was partitioned off" into a series of small cells with 
padlocked doors, and that through each door a square hole, a foot in diameter, 
was cut. Subsequently it was learned that these dismal cages were alternately 
used for the confinement of "troublesome prisoners" — i.e., those who had dis- 
tinguished themselves by ingenious attempts to escape- -and also runaway slaves, 
and Union spies under sentence of death. At the date of Rose's first reconnais- 



sance of this cellar, these cells were vacant and unguarded. 

Next day Col. Harry White contrived to secrete a rope loo ft. long and i in. 
thick which had been used to cord a bale of clothing. This they afterward used 
to descend by. 

On that and for several nights they contented themselves with sly visits of 
observation to this cellar, during which Rose found and secreted various tools, 
among which were a broad-ax, a saw, two chisels, several files, and a carpenter's 
square. One dark night both men went down determined to try their luck at 
passing the guards. Rose made the attempt and passed the first man, but was 
seen by the second, who called, "Who goes there?" but did not enter the dark 
cellar. Rose and Hamilton mounted the rope and had just succeeded in replac- 
ing the plank when the corporal and a file of men entered the cellar with a lan- 
tern . They looked into every barrel and under every bench, but no sign of 
Yankees appeared; and as on this night it happened that several workmen were 
sleeping in an apartment at the north end, the corporal concluded that the man 
seen by the sentinel was one of these, notwithstanding their denial when awaken- 
ed and questioned. 

A party of 70 prisoners was now sworn in and finally increased to 120, the 
idea being to organize enough torce to overpower the prison guards, if necessary. 
The tunnel project was revived. 

The problems before them were these: they could not get into the room 
above Rat Hell, for that was the hospital, and the kitchen's heavy wall between. 
Neither could they break the heavy wall between the cellar from the carpenter's 
shop, for the breach certainly would be discovered by the workmen, some of whom 
were in there constantly during daylight. 

The conception ot the device by which Rat Hell could be reached without 
detection, and its successful execution was due to Hamilton. This was to cut a 
hole in the back of the kitchen fire-place, just far enough to preserv^e the hospital 
side intact: then cut downward to a point below the level of the hospital floor; 
then eastward into Rat Hell, the completed opening thus to describe the letter 
"Z." Yet the wall must not be broken on the hospital side above the floor, nor 
marred on the carpenter' s-shop side below it, for both of these points were con- 
spicuously exposed to view every hour in the day. Moreover, it was imperative- 
ly necessary that all trace of the beginning of the opening should be concealed, 
not only from officials and guards, who were constantly passing the spot every 
day, but from the hundreds of uninitiated prisoners who crowded around the stove 
from dawn till dark. 

Work could only be possible between the hours of 10 at night, when the room 
was generally abandoned by the prisoners because of its inundated condition, and 
4 o'clock in the morning, when the earliest risers were again astir. It was neces- 
sary to do it with an old jack-knife and one of the chisels previously secured by 
Rose. It must be done in darkness and without noise, for a sentinel paced on 
the Carey street sidewalk just outside the door and within ten feet of the fire-place. 
A rubber blanket was procured, and the soot from the chimney carefull^^ swept 
into it. Hamilton, with his old knife, cut the mortar between the bricks and 
pried a dozen of them out, being careful to preserve them whole. 

Night after night the weary work went on, the bricks being replaced each 
night and blackened with the saved soot. They appropriated one of the wooden 
spittoons of the prison, and to each side attached a piece of clothes-line which they 
had been permitted to have to dry clothes on. Several bitsof candles and the larger 
of the two chisels were also taken to the operating-cellar. They kept this secret 
well and worked alone at digging for many nights. In fact, they would have so 
continued, but they found their candles go out in the bad air of the hole after they 
had dug about four feet. Rose dug and Hamilton fanned fresh air into the hole 
with his hat. The rope was converted into a ladder with wooden rungs, and squads 
of five told oflf to systematize the labor. This first tunnel ran below the canal and 



water rushing in it had to be plugged up. An attempt to divert its course to the 
main sewer was balked by the fact that the tools could not penetrate its three oak 
planks, and a new plan had to be formed, — to dig under the building facing the 
street. 

The wall of that east cellar had to be broken in three places before a place 
was found where the earth was firm enough to support a tunnel. The two men 
worked on with stubborn patience, but their progress was painfully slow. Rose 
dug assiduously, and Hamilton alternately fanned the air to his comrade and drag- 
ged and hid the excavated dirt, but the old difficulty confronted him. The can- 
dle would not burn, the air could not be fanned fast enough with a hat and the 
dirt hidden, without better contrivance or additional help. 

Rose now reassembled the party and selected from them a number who were 
willing to renew the attempt. Against the east wall stood a series of stone fend- 
ers abutting inwards, and these, being at uniform intervals of about 
twenty feet, cast deep shadows that fell towards the prison front. In one of 
these dark recesses the wall was pierced, well up towards the Carey street end. 
Usually one man would dig, and fill the spittoon with earth; upon the signal of a 
gentle pull, an assistant would drag the load into the cellar by the clothes-lines 
fastened to each side of this box, and then hide it under the straw; a third con- 
stantly fanned air into the tunnel with a rubber blanket stretched across a frame, 
the invention of the ingenious Hamilton; a fourth would give occasional relief to 
the last two; while a fifth would keep a lookout. 

The danger of discovery was contin'ual, for the guards were under instruc- 
tions from the prison commandant to make occasional visits to every accessible 
part of the building; so that it was not unusual for a sergeant and several men to 
enter the south door of Rat Hell in the day-time, while the diggers were at labor 
in the dark north end. During these visits the digger would watch the intruders 
with his head sticking out of the tunnel, while the others would crouch behind 
the low stone fenders, or crawl quickly under the straw. 

One day Capt. I. N. Johnson was in the tunnel at roll-call, his absence was 
detected and there only lay before him the choice of remaining below till the 
tunnel was completed, or by returning, explode the plot. As he tells us in "Four 
Months in Ivibby," he chose the former alternative. 

Johnson, was of course, nightly fed by his companions, but it soon became 
apparent that a man could not long exist in such a continuously pestilential at- 
mosphere. How long were the days and nights the poor fellow passed among 
the squealing rats no tongue can tell — the sickening air, the deathly chill, the 
horrible, interminable darkness. As a desperate measure of relief it was arranged, 
that each night he should come upstairs, when all was dark and the prison in 
slumber, and sleep until just before time for closing the fire-place each morning. 
As he spoke to no one and the room was dark, his presence was never known, and 
he listened to many conversations between his neighbors regarding his wonderful 
disappearance. 

For safety he was obliged to confine himself by day to ths dark north end, 
for the Confederates often came suddenly through the south entrance. When 
they ventured too close, Johnson would get into a pit that he had dug under the 
straw as a hidinghole both for himself and the tunnelers' tools, and quickly cover 
himself with a huge heap of short packing straw. A score of times he came near 
being stepped upon, and more than once the dust compelled him to sneeze in 
their presence. 

Mr. Moran tells the story of the breaking through into the street and their suc- 
cessful completion of the tunnel as it differently is given in the preceding narrative; 
but gives the date of Col. Rose's departure. In the stampede which followed, was 
knocked senseless and trampled on. On recovering, he managed to drop into Rat 
Hell, but had lost his bearings and only found the entrance to the tunnel by lay- 
ing his hands upon the feet of a retreating predecessor. He successfully emerged. 



Of his subsequent adventures he says that ' 'it was a chapter of hair-breadth escapes, 
hunger, cold, suffering, and, alas! failure. We were run down and captured in a 
swamp several miles north of Charlottesville, and when we were taken our captors 
pointed out to us the smoke over a federal outpost. We were brought back to 
Libby and put in one of the dark, narrow dungeons." In a captivity of i year 
and 8 months, he escaped five times, only to be successively recaptured. 




t/3 

n 
o 

^•■ 

o* 

3 
< 

o 






o 

3 

(A 

3* 
o 

^. 

s' 



B9 

5 

o 



H 

c 

3 
3 














LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



001 350 714 4 



\ 






N 



